A Personal Endowment The Descent Journey PDF

A Personal Endowment
The Descent, Journey & Ascent Motif Throughout Time
The Meaning Behind the

Ancient Egyptian & Eleusinian Mysteries
by Richard A. Ware
Copyright © 2019 Richard A. Ware
Section I
Overview of the Ancient Mysteries
The Ancient Mysteries were mystical sets of information and experience, both
esoteric and exoteric that were contained within myths, rituals and dramas beginning
around the time of the ancient Egyptians (ca. 2,500 BCE) and descended from them to
the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece and to different nations in various formats.
The Mysteries presented symbolic information relative to one’s life on earth, his
descent, journey and ascent, his relationship with nature and with the Goddess, the idea
that man continues to live after death, and what the process was of knowing the Gods
and of living with them after death. Collectively these, and other associated concepts,
were called the Ancient Mysteries.
The information given in rituals to ancient initiates was considered sacred, with
some of it kept secret from the uninitiated. The Mysteries contained metaphors, sym-
bols and allegories that both hid and revealed their meaning, depending upon the level
of the initiate. Parts of the rituals “of becoming” were given outside the sanctuary and
other parts were given within. Some parts of the rituals and myths were recorded on
the inside of Egyptian temple walls (paintings) and some were written on scrolls. West
stated: “The Temple tells, in stone, in its proportions and harmonies, its art and sculp-
ture, the story of the creation of man; it signals his development, stage by stage, and it
recreates in artistic form man’s relationship to the universe.” (West, 1993, 152-153).
“The purpose of this [exterior] complex relief is the depiction of the battle
between the forces of light and darkness. Having vanquished the enemy, the king can
enter the Temple; to enter the Temple, all obstacles in the external world must be
overcome. This is why the battle scenes are all on the exterior of the Temple walls.”
(West, 1993, 161-162). Yet “…it is also the temple in which the primordial struggle
takes place between the essential antagonists: light and dark, Yin and Yang, gravity and
levity, Ormuzd and Ahriman [good and evil, light and dark], Quetzalcoatl and
Tezcatlipoca, Horas and Seth.” (West, 1993, x).
In ancient Egypt there were both gods and goddesses, each having their role to
The Meaning Behind the Ancient Egyptian & Eleusinian Mysteries Page 1
play and each of them representing and symbolizing certain literal aspects that occur
or exist within nature, such as Geb the earth God, and Nut the Sky Goddess. The Egypt-
ian Mysteries centered around the myth of the God Osiris and Goddess Isis, while in
Eleusis the Mysteries centered around the myth of Demeter and Persephone, two God-
desses. The rituals consisted of both the Lesser and Greater Mysteries.
The conclusion reached by most researchers today is that the Mystery rites
began in Egypt and were later taken to Eleusis along with “…the philosophical teaching
that infused them.” (Baring, 1991, 413). These mystery rituals originated in ancient
Egypt ca. 2,500 BCE and in Eleusis ca. 1600 BCE.
General Aspects of the Ancient Mysteries
The ancient mysteries tell the story, in symbolic format, of the descent, journey
and ascent of each human. The story always involves a Goddess (Zoe, always eternal,
never changing) such as Demeter and Isis, and a godman (Bios, the dying and
resurrecting godman or goddess, annually renewing) such as Persephone and Osiris.
In the Egyptian drama story, Osiris was killed and dismembered by his brother
Set/Seth. Isis wandered looking for the parts of his body and having found them re-
assembled him. Osiris then became the God of the Dead.
In the drama story of Demeter and Persephone, it was the Goddess Persephone
who was raped and dragged into Hades and who was rescued and brought back into
the arms of Demeter. The symbolism remains intact with Persephone representing
Bios, the annual living and dying aspect of her mother Goddess, Demeter (Zoe).
The godman Bios annually died and was resurrected 3 days later during the
time of the vernal equinox, celebrated at Easter, which symbolized the “death” or end
of winter, and the rebirth or resurrection of new life and fertility upon the land. The 3
days between the death of winter and the resurrection of life are 1) the last day of
winter (the day prior to the vernal or spring equinox), 2) the day of the vernal equinox
(the day of transition when all stands still), and 3) the day after, which is the first day
of new life, growth and fertility.
The ancient mystery drama rituals always involved a descent from light to
darkness, followed by a wandering, searching or journey in darkness, and an ascent
from darkness into light. The crowning event of the ancient rituals was entering the
presence of the Gods/ Goddesses and realizing he or she would live among them in the
afterlife. These aspects are among the core elements of the ancient mystery rites.
Today, they are also found within the Masonic and LDS endowment.
The portrayal of the descent, journey and ascent can be found within the biblical
stories of Adam and Eve, of Moses and the Exodus, the life and death of the “Gnostic”
Jesus written by the Essenes, the Good Samaritan, as well as the Grail legends and fairy
tales such as Cinderella. In this manner, and in several other ways, the mysteries were
passed on to posterity throughout the centuries of silence in order to keep the know-
ledge of the mysteries alive.
Prior to the establishment of the mystery rituals in ancient Egypt and Eleusis,
annual sacrifices were performed during Easter as an act of propitiation and thanks-
giving, which symbolized Bios, the death of the “old” and the birth of the “new.” With
the passing of time, bulls, rams and other scapegoats were sacrificed in the place of
men which also represented Bios.
“With the [ancient] Mysteries [however], we move into a totally new concept of
sacrifice. [***] The initiate himself becomes the son-lover [the “old” godman, Bios], whose
old beliefs and way of life are sacrificed to his or her new understanding of the Mysteries,
and who is ‘reborn’ from the death-like state of his former level of understanding. The
‘Day of Blood’ symbolized the death or sacrifice of the former state [and] the Hilaria, or
day of rejoicing, celebrated the return or ascent of the soul to its source. The child ‘born’
of the sacred marriage between the initiate and the goddess was at once the image of
regenerated life on earth and the initiate’s own spiritual regeneration” (Baring, 1991,
413-414, italics added).
The mystery rites that enacted the ‘death’ of the initiate also brought him back
to life, reborn and released from the fear of death. Initiates saw themselves as eternal
rather than mortal beings. The Orphic initiate proclaimed “‘I am a child of Earth and
Starry Heaven; But my race is of Heaven alone.’” (Baring, 1991, 414).
The initiates of the mysteries came to know that they were both human and
divine. “Immortality was certain because humanity, like all creation, was divine. They
had ‘fallen from’ or forgotten this knowledge, but through the rituals of the mysteries
they could remember it. [***] It seems that the initiation involved a symbolic descent
into the underworld into the sacred cave or crypt beneath or beside the temple of [the
Goddess] Cybele, and here the ceremony of the sacred marriage took place, and from
here the initiate was ‘reborn’ as a ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ of the goddess.” (Baring, 1991, 415).
The mystery dramas and rituals were not about historical events! They were
designed to teach people concepts relating to their own personal existence, mortal and
eternal, their descent into a world of darkness, and their journey back into the light.
They learned that personal knowledge and spiritual preparation were needed if they
wished to be embraced or touched by the Egyptian and Eleusinian Gods or Goddesses.
Once the embrace occurred they were assured of their salvation and that they would
live among the Gods in the afterlife.
The different nations created their own variations of the ancient drama rituals.
There was never any right or wrong way to present the mysteries as long as the core
elements and correct philosophical teachings were included. Modern Freemasonry is a
form of the ancient mysteries, and “the actual form of words employed was (and still
always is) the least important element about the Ceremony” (Wilmshurst, 1932, 3).
The ancient Egyptian Mysteries were successfully transmitted by temple Priests
and Priestesses to initiates like Pythagoras who spent several decades in Egypt learn-
ing the myths and teachings of the Mysteries, as well as their sciences and philosophy.
He later returned and endowed groups of initiates throughout Greece.
The core concepts of the Mysteries spread to other countries and infiltrated
Gnostic sects. “The Mysteries were the root of the Gnostic sects that came to prom-
inence before and after the beginning of the Christian era” (Baring, 1991, 413).
Candidates had to first meet a level of worthiness. Kephalas stated that “…per-
sons of illegitimate birth, slaves, immoral persons, degenerates, traitors, deserters, and
those indifferent to the good of society were prevented by their intrinsic unworthiness
from becoming candidates…” for the Mysteries. (Nicholas Kephalas, The Wisdom of the
Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries, p xviii).
It is important to note, that to qualify for the Mysteries, whether Egyptian or
Eleusinian, no one needed to be a member of any organized religion or group. The Mys-
teries were for all worthy persons who desired them, and once endowed, the person
could then live his or her life according to the elevated experiences and knowledge gained
in the rituals without any oversight by an external organization. After all, the purpose of
the rituals was to emphasize the importance of inner self awakening and self-actual-
ization, culminating in a personal experience with the Divine, all of which could only be
performed and experienced by each person, individually and independently.
Although the ancient mythic stories and mystery rituals varied between nations,
they all contained certain core or common elements. “… the common elements in the
Mysteries [were] the descent into darkness and then the light, or the death and re-
birth” (Nicholas Kephalas, “The Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries”, p 12).
Also included in the core elements was the drama story that was told. In the
mysteries the story was told of a Goddess (Zoe: Isis, Demeter) who was eternal, and a
godman (Bios: Osiris, Persephone) who died and resurrected each year. The dram
included a doe-skin garment, passwords, an embrace and the descent, journey and
ascent motif. Comparatively, Jesus is the godman and his Father is Zoe. Catholic
tradition states that the Father and Son are one entity, just as the ancient Goddess Zoe
is one entity with her son or daughter Bios. In both instances Bios is forever being born
at the Winter Solstice (December 21-23, set by decree to Dec 25) and forever dying and
resurrecting yearly at the Spring Equinox at Easter.
The Winter Solstice is the moment in nature when the Sun ceases its movement
southward and begins its re-ascent northward. It is the moment at which death in
nature stops and the birth of a new cycle commences. Hence the birth of the baby
godman (Bios) is always celebrated at the Winter Solstice at Christmas time.
Three months after his birth, the vernal (spring) equinox occurs. The day
before the equinox is the last day of barrenness and sterility in nature. The day of the
equinox is the day of transition between the two cycles, and the first day after the
Equinox is the first day of new life, fertility and new growth. Hence, the “old” cycle
passes away and a “new” cycle begins. This very ancient event was celebrated with the
death of the godman (Bios, the previous year) and his resurrection to new life 3 days
later, and a new year. Today, Christians celebrate this time of year with the death and
resurrection of their Bios (Jesus) although the godman in this case is considered to be a
real person by Christians rather than how Bios was viewed anciently.
These drama rituals were celebrated from ca. 2,500 BCE until ca. 392 CE when
efforts were begun by Emperor Theodosius I to destroy the temples of the Goddess and
the initiation rites contained within them and to replace all of it with Catholic beliefs
and rituals. All centers of the Mysteries were eventually destroyed, causing the mys-
teries to move out of public sight and into various secret organizations and groups that
kept them alive, such as the Manicheans, Valentinians, Pagans, Gnostics, Bogomils,
Cathars, Knights Templars, and Troubadours. Gnostic works like the stories of Jesus
written by the Essenes; the Zohar which was a part of the Kabbalistic writings of mystic
Judaism; and games such as the major arcana of the Tarot all contained aspects of the
ancient Mysteries, which taught the descent, journey and ascent in symbol and myth.
Wright stated: “About the beginning of the fifth century Theodosius the Great
prohibited and almost totally extinguished the pagan theology in the Roman Empire,
and the Eleusinian Mysteries suffered in the general destruction. It is probable, how-
ever, that the Mysteries were celebrated secretly in spite of the severe edicts of Theo-
dosius and that they were partly continued through the dark ages, though stripped of
their [previous] splendor. It is certain that many rites of the pagan religion were
performed under the dissembled name of convivial meetings, long after the publication
of the Emperor’s edicts, and Psellius informs us that the Mysteries of Ceres [Demeter]
existed in Athens until the eighth century of the Christian era and were never totally
suppressed.” (Wright, 1919, 22).
The Ancient Egyptian Mysteries
“The initiatic and mystical character of ancient Egypt is attested from the time
of the Pyramid Texts (Old Kingdom – ca. 2350 BCE) through the Greco-Roman era.
Ancient authors consistently considered Egypt the font of ancient wisdom, and
described the Mysteries and initiatic character of the Egyptians.” (Rosicrucian Digest No.
1, 2007, Ancient Texts on the Egyptian Mysteries, p 14). “It is still affirmed, … that Egypt
was the main cradle of contemporary esotericism.” (Max Guilmot, An Initiatory Drama in
Ancient Egypt, p 1). It was in Egypt that the ancient drama, myth and rituals were given
to initiates by the temple Priests and Priestesses.
The sacred texts of Egypt are part of an initiatic religion, and are compre-
hensible only within that context. The aim of all initiatic religions is the same the world
over and has always been: to guide man from his natural state of consciousness (which is
called 'illusion' or 'sleep') to a higher state (called 'illumination' or 'the kingdom'). This
higher state, his destiny and birthright, is, within the context of the natural world,
'unnatural'. It is impossible to construct a rational argument to compel the unwilling
and the immune into acknowledging either the existence or the importance of this
higher state. It is impossible to 'prove' to the skeptic that this has any direct bearing
upon himself or his life. Initiatic writings are therefore comprehensible only to
initiates, to those who have at least put one foot down upon the long road. And the
further along the road, the greater and deeper the understanding. (West, 1993, 136,
italics added).
“Certainly in Egypt ritual dances and dramatized performances of living myth

were given in the temples. Dance in all early cultures, was a way of communicating with
the Goddess….” (Baring, 1991, 135-136). “In Egypt and Samaria the temple came to be
the focus of the rites that renewed the earth’s fertility….” (Baring, 1991, 150).
From at least the fifth century BC onwards, Greek writers showed an interest in
Egypt. This is most visible in the writings of Herodotus, who devoted one of the nine
books of his history entirely to Egypt and was particularly interested in Egyptian
religion, which he considered the source of Greek religious understanding. Herodotus
identifies Isis [Egypt] with Demeter [Greek] and Osiris [Egypt] with Dionysus [Greek],
and he mentions sacred stories about Osiris/Dionysus that he declines to tell.
Diodorus, writing in the first century BC, makes the same identification and also claims
an Egyptian origin for the Eleusinian Mysteries and Bacchic cult.” (Bowden, 2010, 159,
italics).
The Egyptian mythic story that was given to the people was the myth of Osiris
and Isis. (For a full review of the myth, see Budge, 1959, 64-81). Osiris was the son of Isis-
Net who was “born” when the Spring Sun was re-born at the spring equinox (Budge,
1969, I:463). Osiris descended to the earth where he journeyed doing good. He was
tricked into getting into a coffin built for him which was then nailed shut and melted
lead was poured over it. It was then carried to the river side which “conveyed it to the
sea by the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile.” [***] “As soon as the report reached her [Isis] she
immediately cut off one of the locks of her hair, and put on mourning apparel upon the
very spot where she then happened to be. [***] She wandered everywhere about the
country full of disquietude and perplexity in search of the chest.”
The chest was finally found on the coast of Byblos where a beautiful large tree
had grown around it. Isis became close with the Queen & began to care for the Queen’s
son, nursing him, and “put him every night into the fire in order to consume his mortal
part” helping him to thus gain immortality. The Queen objected, so Isis demanded the
pillar that had been made from the tree in which the chest was located, and raised “a
loud and terrible lamentation over it. She then placed the chest in a remote place but
Typho (Set) found it one night by the moon and took the body of Osiris and tore it into
14 pieces (sym., the number of days in the waning of the moon, the descent into
darkness) and scattered it into different parts of the country. Isis again set out in
search of the parts of Osiris (the journey in darkness) and found all of them except his
phallus, so she created a new one (Budge, 1959, 66-75). Isis then placed herself upon it,
became pregnant and gave birth to Horus. “The gods brought about his [Osiris’]
resurrection” who then became the God of the Underworld (Budge, 1959, 81; Bowden,
2010, 159; Budge, 1969, I:487) while Horus (the new Osiris) ruled on earth. This story
was the story of every initiate. Masonic writer Albert Mackey wrote:
[39] “Osiris, the husband of Isis, was an ancient king of the Egyptians. Having
been slain by Typhon, his body was cut [40] into pieces by his murderer, and the
mangled remains cast upon the waters of the Nile, to be dispersed to the four winds of
heaven. His wife, Isis, mourning for the death and the mutilation of her husband, for
many days searched diligently with her companions for the portions of the body, and
having at length found them [except for the phallus], united them together, and
bestowed upon them decent interment, -- while Osiris, thus restored, became the chief
deity of his subjects, and his worship was united with that of Isis, as the fecundating
and fertilizing powers of nature. The candidate in these initiations was made to pass
through a mimic repetition of the conflict and destruction of Osiris, and his eventual
recovery; and the explanations made to him, after he had received the full share of light
to which the painful and solemn ceremonies through which he had passed had entitled
him, constituted the secret doctrine . . . as the object of all the Mysteries. Osiris, -- a real
and personal god to the people, . . . became to the initiate but a symbol . . . while his
death, and the wailing of Isis, with the recovery of the body, his translation to the rank
of a celestial being, and the consequent rejoicing of his spouse, were but a [41] [unique]
mode of teaching that after death comes life eternal, and that though the body be
destroyed, the soul shall still live.” (Mackey, 1909, 39-41)
Mackey asks the reader to compare the number of pieces Osiris was cut into
(14) “with the fourteen days of burial in the masonic legend of the third degree.”
(Mackey, 1909, 40).
The above quote by Mackey explains what the initiate went through during the
Egyptian drama portion of the ritual. This drama is very similar to the Eleusinian ritual
where Demeter wanders the land in search of her daughter Persephone and the
ultimate joy of finally being reunited with her.
In the Mystery ritual of Isis and Osiris, the “initiation possibly involved time
spent in some kind of underground chamber” which was a “representation of the chest
in which Osiris was locked” (Bowden, 2010, 161) and which represents the journey a person
makes while in the darkness of mortality.
“From century to century, words and symbols may vary [within the rituals], but
the initiatory [initiatic] process—a long journey through darkness accompanied with
trials and followed by a sudden illumination—remains unchanged. It cannot vary in its
general scheme since it always intends to regenerate the human being and to lead one to
supreme Knowledge. It must always evoke a step toward light.” (Max Guilmot, An Initiatory
Drama in Ancient Egypt, p 2, italics added).
In the ancient Egyptian Leiden Papyrus it recounts the visit of Horsiesis to the
temple of Osiris:
Each step of his journey” are where “particular gestures are made, ritual words
are uttered, and sacred objects are revealed.” (These three elements of the ritual are
the same as what is in the Eleusinian mysteries.) “The postulant [initiate], coming from
the broad daylight of the courtyard [sym. of pre-earth heaven] and abruptly plunged
into the obscurity of the forbidden chambers [sym. of birth into mortality], feels alone
and helpless. But the presence of the servants of the temple is comforting. Let one
proceed, therefore, to meet the great god!” [***] “There is one door in the West [sym,
darkness, womb, earth] through which one enters; one door in the East [sym, light of
the Divine, womb] through which one exits.” [***] During the journey in darkness a
priest appears, “an archivist who knows the books of Thoth—the god of Wisdom—and
who therefore can accompany Horsiesis—“smooth his path”—until supreme knowledge is
attained. It is this priest … that will guide the neophyte toward Illuminations while
several guardians of the Portals grasp the arm of the neophyte. In the dark corridors,
the procession proceeds. At each portal that Horsiesis goes through, some guardians
utter an “appeal” [i.e., password]. [***] After that long night of the soul, the holy crypt
finally comes into view.” [***] “Supreme moment: Horsiesis sees Him [Osiris, God]. At
last he sees The One, the conqueror of death, who led humanity upon the path of
Eternity. Through the unveiling of the sublime Thing, the initiate knows more than other
humans; through the initiation, the initiate experiences a transition from human being to
a being more than human. Brought face to face with the redeeming god, the initiate is
saved. (Max Guilmot, An Initiatory Drama in Ancient Egypt, pp 3-7, italics added).
This same conceptual ritual and drama are enacted within modern Masonic
Lodges and LDS temples, except with a different cast of characters and dramatic story.
The concept of a descent into darkness, of a wandering in darkness, a rebirth,
and finally reemergence into the light was depicted anciently in the Egyptian beliefs
regarding the God Ra (Re, Ptah, Temu, Atum, etc). Ra is represented by the Sun. When
he is at his zenith in the noon day sky, it represents the fullness of his life in light and
glory. It is “paradise” or living in God’s presence prior to coming to earth.
Ra then begins his downward descent as he leaves the zenith and travels down
towards the horizon on earth where he arrives at sunset. Here, he becomes Atum or
Temu. Some ancient Egyptian scholars suggest Atum was later incorporated into the
biblical mythic Adam who fell to earth (as quoted in Nibley, 1975, 133-134).
His glory and light are extinguished at sunset as he begins his journey into the
underworld, the land of darkness, weakness and death, and here he journeys until he is
reborn in the morning at sunrise. “Khepri was the form of the solar orb as it came into
being in the morning.” (Silverman, 1991, 36). After rebirth he travels again to the zenith
of the sky, which is his ascent.
The myth of Ra represents the journey that all mortals make. It is the mystical
process of spiritual death and rebirth that is not only symbolized in the fall of the Sun
to the earth, it’s wandering in darkness, and its eventual reemergence, the ancients
also saw this depicted in the waxing and waning of the moon, going from a full moon
(light) to new (darkness) and back to full.
The Egyptians promised that anyone who knew all the spells contained within
the guidebook to the beyond “could attain the same goal as the king and could travel in
the sun god’s barque.” (Silverman, 1991, 101; Coffin Text 1130).
Humans are currently in the underworld in darkness making their way. Some
come to realize their lives are not what they want them to be. Realizing the need for
change, they search for new knowledge and understanding regarding life, and use that
to become transformed from an “old person” into a newly “resurrected” person. The
new person is like the mystical phoenix that dies and rises again from the ashes of the
old self (ancient-origins.net/myths-legends).
Likewise, the Buddha mythically descended from his rich and luxurious palace
(symbolic of Eden or paradise) and went into the fallen and dark world on a journey to
find the meaning of life. He tried both extremes, asceticism and indulgence, finally
deciding the middle path was the right one. From this he gained enlightenment. He
“died” as to the old person, moving past all that controlled or attempted to control him,
including fear, guilt and doubt and was “resurrected” into a wise sage. He then ascend-
ed to the realm of heavenly thought and existence. Nearly 500 million Buddhists wor-
ship him today.
The ancient Egyptians…
…were expressing in the most concise dramatic form possible the universal
principle of regeneration, with the phallus, symbol of fecundating principle unaffected
by death and dissolution, acting upon the feminine principle and generating a new
cycle. This new cycle was not merely a renewal and repetition of the old cycle, but a
transcendent version of it. For Horus will avenge his father Osiris, and after endless
battles, defeat Set and live in eternity as the eye of Ra -- that is to say, as the observing
organ of the divine. [***] -- for Horus in this context is the divine man, born of nature,
who must do battle against Set, his own kin, ultimately defeating him and being
reconciled to him. Set is variously the enemy, the divisive principle, the intellect, the
ruler of time, the destroyer. (West, 1993, 129).
The ancient Egyptian belief in the beginning was, that the Gods actually came
down to earth and begat the Egyptian race. This was important because it tied their
physical existence on earth to the Gods of heaven. It caused initiates to believe they
had a special connection with the Gods. Budge wrote:
The Egyptians believed that they were a divine nation, and that they were ruled
by kings who were themselves gods incarnate; their earliest kings, they asserted, were
actually gods, who did not disdain to live upon the earth, and to go about and up and
down through it, and to mingle with men. Other ancient nations were content to
believe that they had been brought into being by the power of their gods operating
upon matter, but the Egyptians believed that they were the issue of the great God who
created the universe, and that they were directly of divine origin. [***] Tem [or Atem]
was regarded as the father of the human race… (Budge, 1969, I:3, 350, italics added).
The Egyptians believed the God/Kings had mortal children and that they would
eventually grow old (Budge, 1969, I:32, 57, 71).
Early LDS church leaders also taught the idea that God came down to earth and
begat the human race, using the creation story of the Old Testament as their basis. “At
[a] meeting of School of the Prophets: President Young said Adam was Michael the
Archangel, & he was the Father of Jesus Christ & was our God & that Joseph [Smith]
taught this principle.” (Wilford Woodruff Journal, Dec 16, 1867). Young stated: “It was
Joseph’s doctrine that Adam was God &c.” (Minutes of Meeting at Historian’s Office, GSLC,
7pm, April 4, 1860). Walker recorded that “Pres [Wilford] Woodruff and [George Q.]
Cannon showed in a very plain manner … that Adam was an immortal being when he
came to this earth and was made the same as all other men and Gods are made…”
(Diary of Charles L. Walker, Vol II: 740-741; June 11th, 1892).
In the Lecture at the Veil given by President Young in 1877 it states in part
“And when this earth was organized by Elohim, Jehovah & Michael who is Adam our
common Father … Adam & Eve when they were placed on this earth were immortal
beings … but upon partaking of the fruits on the earth while in the garden. . . their
bodies became changed from immortal to mortal beings with the blood coursing
through their veins as the action of life.” (Diary of Charles L. Walker, II:740-741 or
typescript copy, pp 43-44, June 11, 1892, St. George Meeting; “Events Relating to the Giving and
Writing of the Lecture at the Veil in St. George, Utah by Pres B. Young in 1877”, 1974).
Both J. Smith and B. Young taught their followers that it was their privilege to
also become an Adam and Eve on future worlds. The path to achieve this was to obtain
the endowment, enter into plural marriage, and to receive the second anointing where
men and women were crowned gods and goddesses. Once exalted they would create
their own worlds and then “Fall” into those worlds as Adam and Eves, have mortal
children and grow “old”, at which time Adam and his wives would partake of the fruit
of the Tree of Life and return to their world of immortality.
LDS members who have stumbled across this now abandoned LDS teaching are
told that the early leaders did not literally mean what they said. But those who have
spent years in original research on this subject, can say definitively that it was taught
by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff and church leaders from the 1840s
to the early 1900s. In 1890 polygamy was suspended within the church and in the
early 1900s the Adam-God doctrine was removed from all LDS temples and as
accepted doctrine. The second anointing, however, continued to be administered to
the most faithful.
The ancient Egyptian Gods also came down to earth and continued their blood
line through the queens of Egypt:
In the early [Egyptian] Empire the kings of Egypt believed themselves to be the
sons of Ra, the Sun-god. All chronological tradition affirms that every possessor of the
throne of Egypt was proved by some means or other to have the blood of Ra flowing in
his veins, or to hold it because he was connected with Ra by marriage. The bas-reliefs
of Queen Hatshepset at Der al-Bahari, and those of Amenhetep III at Luxor, and those of
Cleopatra VII in the temple of Erment (now destroyed, alas!) describe the process by
which Ra or Amen-Ra became the father of the kings and queens of Egypt. From these
we see that whenever the divine blood needed replenishing, the god took upon himself
the form of the reigning king of Egypt, and that he visited the queen in her chamber and
became the actual father of the child who was subsequently born to her (Budge, 1969,
I:329).
Centuries later, the new Jesus story held to this same idea of how and by whom
Mary was impregnated. Luke states she was “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit (God)
which impregnated her (Luke 1:35) and thus God became the father of her child.
Early LDS leaders taught the same idea, that Mary was impregnated by God the
Father (Orson Pratt, The Seer, 1853, 158; Pres. Joseph F. Smith, Box Elder News, Brigham City,
Utah, pub. 28 Jan 1915). In this rendition, as with the Egyptian account, God the Father
visited Mary in her chamber and thereby [via physical coitus] “became the actual father
of the child who was subsequently born to her.” This also ceased to be taught by LDS
leaders in the early 1900s. President Smith was the last known church President to
openly voice this belief.
Regarding the Egyptian practice to keep their mysteries secret, Clement stated:
“The Egyptians did not entrust the mysteries they possessed to all and sundry and did
not divulge the knowledge of divine things to the profane.” He [Clement] also informs
us that . . . all sacred truth is enfolded in symbolical fables and allegories – and he says
of the Mysteries, “Those who instituted the Mysteries, being philosophers, buried their
doctrines in myths, so as not to be obvious to all.” (The Stromata, Book V, Ch, VII, Ch, IX, as
quoted in Vail, 1909, 21).
The Eleusinian Lesser Mysteries
The ancient mysteries, both Egyptian and Eleusinian, were based upon the
universal belief that the soul existed prior to its descent into the mortal body of clay.
Wright stated that “the doctrine of the immortality of the soul traces its origin to
sources anterior to the rise of the Mysteries.” (Wright, 1919, 98).
“Matter was regarded by the Egyptians as a certain mire or mud” (Wright, 1919,
96). Plato states that when the pure soul entered the body it (the body) became a
“sepulchre of the soul” and that “the soul is punished through its union with the body.”
(Wright, 1919, 94; Taylor, 1891, 37). The soul sinks “into the profoundities [sic] of the
material nature” and “unites with the dark tenement of the material body.” (Wright,
1919, 105). Consequently the soul “becomes familiar with darkness and subject to the
empire of night” wherein the soul lives completely with “delusive phantoms.” (Wright,
1919, 105).
“Philolaus. . .wrote: ‘The ancient theologists and priests testify that the soul is
united with the body for the sake of suffering punishment, and that it is buried in the
body as in a sepulchre.’” (Wright, 1919, 94). This was done without the consent of the
soul. “The lapse of the soul into a material nature is contrary to the genuine wish and
proper condition” of the soul (Wright, 1919, 105) and is why the Eleusinian drama is
called the “rape of Persephone” as it was contrary to her wish that she be abducted and
carried down to hell, (hell being symbolic of the human body). The Egyptians believed
that “energy is the measurable expression of the revolt of spirit against its imprison-
ment in matter (West, 1993, 34, 67) “It is Set that imprisons spirit matter; hence the
phallic significance. For it is the procreative act [when the spermatozoon enters the
egg] that ensnares the ‘soul’ and imprisons it in human form.” (West, 1993, 141-142).
Those who enter the physical world are “subjected to passion, lust, and the
bondage of evils. . . .Evil is inherent in this condition; and the soul dwells [p26] in the
body as in a prison or a grave.” While in this state “the rational or intellectual element
is asleep” (Taylor, 1891, 25-26). Only through the Mysteries can a soul be purified “or
separated from evils by knowledge, truth, expiations, sufferings, and prayers” (Taylor,
1891, 26). In the Phaedo, Plato states “that men are placed in the body as in a prison,
secured by a guard” (Taylor, 1891, 33).
Plato argued that a person who has not been initiated lives illogically based
upon emotions, unable to logically and rationally understand the difference between
opinion and evidence. Such a person “is sunk in sleep and conversant with delusions
and dreams” and if he remains such, when he descends to Hades (the afterlife), he will
be “overwhelmed with sleep perfectly profound.” (Wright, 1919, 99).
“The [opening to an earthly] cavern signifies [symbolically] the entrance into
mundane life accomplished by the union of the soul with the terrestrial body” (Wright,
1919, 103). “The first cause of the soul’s descent” is when the embodied person deserts
a life of “intellect” and becomes “ensnared through the allurements of desire.” (Wright,
1919, 104).
In Eleusis, “the Lesser Mysteries were designed by the ancient theologists, their
founders, to signify occultly the condition of the unpurified soul [p35] invested with an
earthly body, and enveloped in a material and physical nature; . . . and that on the
dissolution of the present body, while in this state of impurity, it would experience a
death still more permanent and profound.” [***] “The death of the soul was nothing
more than a profound union with the ruinous bonds of the body” and that the [p36]
“soul’s punishment and existence hereafter are nothing more than a continuation of its
state at present, and a transmigration, as it were, from sleep to sleep, and from dream
to dream” (Taylor, 1891, 35-36, 87). In Egypt the second death of the soul was complete
dissolutionment and is the result of what happens to the uninitiated at physical death.
Plotinus, in Ennead I, book viii explained that when the soul descends into “gen-
eration” or into the physical body, she (the soul) “partakes of evil, and is carried a great
way into a state the opposite of her first purity and integrity, to be entirely merged in
which, is nothing more than to fall into dark mire” or “abhorrent filth.” This, he states
“is what is meant by the falling asleep in Hades” (Taylor, 1891, 38-39). He who, in this
present life, “is in subjection to his irrational part is truly in Hades” while “he who is
superior to its dominion is likewise an inhabitant of a place totally different from
Hades” (Taylor, 1891, 88).
Plato wrote, “Those who instituted the Mysteries for us appear to have intimat-
ed that whoever shall arrive in Hades unpurified and not initiated shall lie in mud; but
he who arrives there purified and initiated shall dwell with the gods.” (Plato in Phaedo,
quoted in Taylor, 1891, 43).
“The Lesser Mysteries were intended to symbolize the condition of the soul
while subservient to the body, and the liberation from this servitude, through purge-
tive virtues, was what the wisdom of the Ancients intended to signify by the descent
into Hades and the speedy return from those dark abodes” (Wright, 1919, 99). Of this
Taylor wrote: “The first initiations of the Eleusinia were called Teletae or terminations,
as denoting that the imperfect and rudimentary period of generated life was ended and
purged off; and the candidate was denominated a mysta, a vailed or liberated person”
(Taylor, 1891, 25).
The Lesser Mysteries “occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in
subjection to the body” while the Greater Mysteries “obscurely intimated. . .the felicity
of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material
nature” and “elevated to the realities of intellectual vision.” (Wright, 1919, 87).
“The design of the initiation, according to Plato, was to restore the soul to that
state from which it fell, and Proclus states that initiation into the Mysteries drew the
souls of men from a material, sensual, and merely human life and joined them in com-
munion with the Gods” (Wright, 1919, 72).
The Mysteries were designed to raise the hope within initiates that they would one
day be able to escape the evils of the body and dwell among the Gods in the hereafter. To
accomplish this the Mysteries were structured so that initiates would be made aware
of their own bad behavior and irrational beliefs during the purification process and
would then be shown what could be theirs in the next life. These same elements are
still maintained within the Masonic and LDS initiatory and endowment rituals.
The Eleusinian Greater Mysteries
The purpose of the Greater Mysteries was so that initiates “would have a high
place in Elysium [paradise, immortality with the Gods], a clearer understanding, and a
more intimate intercourse with the gods, whereas the uninitiated would forever
remain in outer darkness. Indeed, in the third degree the epoptae were said to be
admitted to the presence of and converse with the goddesses Demeter and Persephone
[***]. Initiation was referred to frequently as a guarantee of salvation conferred by out-
ward and visible signs and by sacred formulae.” (Wright, 1919, 97).
Each person who becomes “perfect through his new initiation, restored to lib-
erty [free of the desires and impulses of the body], really master of himself, celebrates,
crowned with myrtle, the most august mysteries, holds converse with just and pure
souls, and sees with contempt the impure multitude of the profane or uninitiated, ever
plunged and sinking itself into the mire and in profound darkness.” (Wright, 1919, 98).
The mysteries contained two types of teaching, the exoteric and esoteric. “The
esoteric teaching was not, of course, grasped by all the initiates; the majority merely
recognized or grasped the exoteric doctrine of a future state of rewards and punish-
ments” (Wright, 1919, 100).
“According to some writers, the initiates into the third degree [of the Mysteries]
were taught that the gods and goddesses were only dead mortals, subject while alive to
the same passions and infirmities as themselves” meaning, as the initiates. “Thus the
meaning of the Mystes is given as ‘one who sees things in disguise,’ and that of Epopt as
‘one who sees things as they are, without disguise.’ The Epopt, after passing through
the ceremonial of exaltation, was said to have received Autopsia, or complete vision”
(Wright, 1919, 106).
“Secrecy was enjoined” in the Eleusinian Mysteries so that “the profane should
not be permitted to share the knowledge of the true nature of Demeter and Persephone
[the Goddesses], as if it were known that these goddesses were only mortal women
their worship would become contemptible” Cicero stated that “it was the humanity of
Demeter and Persephone, their places of interment, and several facts of a like nature
that were concealed with so much care” (Wright, 1919, 107). Revealing this knowledge
to the general public would have caused the collapse of the Mystery rituals, hence there
was a great effort to have the initiates commit to total secrecy upon pain of death.
“The Mysteries declared that the future life was not the shadowy, weary exist-
ence which [p 107] it had hitherto been supposed to be, but that through the rites of
purification and sacrifices of a sacramental character man could secure a better hope
for the future.” (Wright, 1919, 106-7).
Through the ancient Egyptian and Eleusinian Mysteries the initiates were able
to leave behind their understanding of the soul and body and move on to a new and
more hopeful belief in life and the afterlife. The Mysteries drew initiates away “from
an irrational and savage life.” Such were called Initia because they were “the begin-
nings of a life of reason and virtue” (Wright, 1919, 107).
The Ancient Eleusinian Mysteries
“These were the most celebrated of all the sacred orgies [mysteries], and were
called, by way of eminence, The Mysteries. Although exhibiting apparently the features
of an Eastern origin [India?], they were evidently copied from the rites of Isis in Egypt”
(see The Metamorphoses of Apuleius and The Epicurean by Thomas Moore, quoted from Taylor,
1891, 13).
The several different “… elements of the Mystery cult at Eleusis originated from
Egypt. [***] Herodotus, in the fifth century BC, looked to Egypt for the origin of the
Mysteries, but links between Egypt and Crete were well established by the second
millennium BC” (Baring, 1991, 372).
Piatigorsky links Masonry to the ancient rites of Egypt and Eleusis: “Masonry…
or a variant of it existed in the ancient Egyptian rites and was expressed in the Eleusinian
mysteries” (Piatigorsky, 1997, 277).
“The religious mysteries of the ancient world were mystical and symbolic
ceremonies. Their performance revealed occult & sublime philosophic dogmas to
those fortunate enough to receive such initiation. [ *** ] The Eleusinian Mysteries stood
far above the rest in spiritual content and ceremonial majesty.” (Nicholas Kephalas, The
Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries, 5-6).
The Eleusinian Mysteries were rites conducted at the city of Eleusis in ancient
Greece, ca. 1,600 BCE to ca. 392 CE. “In Eleusis they [the Mysteries] lasted for almost
2,000 years, until the fourth century AD, when they were proscribed … later the
[Goddess] temples were sacked by the Goths” (Baring, 1991, 374).
“The purpose and meaning of
the Mysteries was initiation into a
vision. ‘Eleusis’ itself means ‘the Place
of Happy Arrival’, from which the
‘Elysian Fields’ take their name”
(Baring, 1991, 377, italics added).
[Right: The reunion of Demeter
and Persephone as enacted in the
Eleusinian Mysteries, painted by
Frederic Leighton (1830-1896)]
“The Mysteries of Demeter at
Eleusis contained three stages or
degrees: the preliminary initiation
into the Lesser Mysteries, the initiation proper into the Greater Mysteries, known as the
telete, and [lastly] the epopteia, or highest degree of initiation.” (Mylonas, 1961, 239).
The Eleusinian Mysteries were communicated to initiates via a ritual drama in
which the initiates participated as in Egypt. The Egyptian drama story was of Isis and
Osiris. The drama story of the Eleusinian ritual was that of Demeter and Persephone.
Today the Masonic drama story is of Hiram Abiff, and the LDS drama story is that of
Adam and Eve, all of which depict the descent, journey and ascent motif and all that is
associated with each of those three aspects.
The first act of the Eleusinian drama dealt with the abduction of Persephone
and her descent down to Hades (the descent into darkness, hell). The second act is the
account of Demeter’s wanderings on earth in her quest to find her daughter Perse-
phone, and of Persephone’s existence in the underworld of darkness (the journey). The
third act is the account of Persephone ascending from Hades and rejoining Demeter,
her Goddess mother (the ascent).
“This myth is believed to be the interpretation of three stages; the descent,
journey and ascent. The celebration part of the ritual occurred when the ascent was
accomplished by the initiate. In the myth, Persephone ascends from the darkness of hell
and is reunited with the Goddess, her mother” (greek-gods.org/olympian-gods/demeter
.php, italics add).
Initiates into the Eleusinian Mysteries came from all parts of the civilized world.
“Up to three thousand people were initiated each year [into the lesser mysteries].
Among those [who] underwent the rite were Aristotle, Sophocles, Plato, Cicero and a
number of Roman emperors such as Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.” (Michelle Pauli, The
Eleusinian Mysteries, p. 1). “Persons of all ages and both sexes were initiated; and
neglect in this respect, as in the case of Socrates, was regarded as impious and
atheistical.” (Taylor, 1891, 13).
“The [Greater] sacred Mysteries [also called orgies, labors] were celebrated on
every fifth year; and began on the 15th of the month of Boedromian or September.” (The
Eleusinian Mysteries, p1). Taylor confirms this: “The sacred Orgies were celebrated on
every fifth year; and began on the 15th of the month Boedromian or September” (Taylor,
1891, 14). There were 9 days total for the rituals.
The first day the initiates convened.
The second day was the day of purification, washing one’s body in the sea. “On
returning from the bath all were regarded as ‘new creatures,’ the bath being regarded
as a [51] laver of regeneration, and the initiates were clothed in a plain fawn-skin or a
sheep-skin [garment]” (Wright, 1919, 50-51).
The third day was the day of sacrifices.
The fourth day was a solemn procession.
The fifth day was the day of torches, with an evening of “torchlight processions
and much tumult.”
The sixth day the statue of Iacchus, son of Zeus and Demeter is brought from
Athens to Eleusis with singing, dancing, and the beating of brass kettles (Taylor, 1891,
14). “Admission to the second degree took place during the night between the sixth
and seventh days of the celebration of the Mysteries . . . the candidates were crowned
with myrtle wreaths and on entering the building they purified themselves in a formal
manner by immersing their hands in the consecrated water. [***] The candidates for
initiation then took off there ordinary garments and put on the skins of young does”
(Wright, 1919, 80-81), the equivalent of a modern Masonic and LDS ritual garment.
The seventh day games were celebrated.
The eighth day occurred the healing of diseases and in the evening the initiatory
ritual was performed. “Let us enter the mystic temple and be initiated, --- though it
must be supposed that, a year ago, we were initiated into the Lesser Mysteries at
Agrae. We must have been mystae (vailed), before we can become epoptae (seers); in
plain English, we must have shut our eyes to all else before we can behold the mys-
teries. Crowned with myrtle, we enter with the other initiates into the vestibule of the
temple, --- blind as yet, but the Hierophant within will soon open our eyes” (Taylor,
1891, 14, 17).
The ninth day, “when the soul falls into the sublunary world and becomes
united with a terrestrial body, a libation was performed, such as is usual in sacred
rites.” The initiates filled two earthen vessels and “placed one towards the east, and
the other towards the west (Taylor 1891, 168-169). The initiates honored the dead by
pouring out the liquid in the vessels.
Significant Aspects of the Greater Mysteries
“The rituals of the [Greater] Eleusinian Mysteries included three elements: the
Dhronema (things done), the Dheiknymena (things shown), and Legomena (things
spoken) (Nicholas Kephalas, The Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries, p 23).
Mylonas agreed saying they were composed of “dromena, that which was enacted, the
deiknymena, the sacred objects that were shown, and the legomena, the words that
were spoken.” (Mylonas, 1961, 261). Bowden also agreed saying they were “things
done, things shown and things said.” (Bowden, 2010, 38).
Barbara Walker, a researcher and author of ancient history modified one of the
three elements to: “things seen, things heard, and things tasted” (Walker, 1984, 71),
obviously referencing the fact that all initiates “… drank the kykeon, a drink com-
pounded of water, honey, flour, and mint. It was considered a sacred drink because of
Demeter’s consent to drink it when she was consoled by Iambe.” (Nicholas Kephalas, The
Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries, p 22).
“It has been suggested that this drink was infused by the psychotropic fungus
ergot and this, then, heightened the experience and helped transform the initiate.”
(Joshua Mark, The Eleusinian Mysteries: The Rites of Demeter, p 3). Other researchers do
not think it (the kykeon) was psychotropic, like Bowden (Bowden, 2010, 43). Dr. Carl A.
P. Ruck believed the kykeon “was filled with Lysergic Acid Amines, dissolved in water
and prepared from the Claviceps paspalli ergot, growing on barley or another grass,
which does not produce as many toxic alkaloids, and more psychoactive alkaloids.”
(bluelight.org/vb/archive/index.php/t-198779.html; Ruck, Sacred Mushrooms: Secrets of Ele-
usis , 2006). “Clearly ergot of barley is the likely psychotropic ingredient in the Eleusin-
ian potion.” (Wasson, Hofmann, Ruck, The Road to Eleusis, Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries,
p. 18). This psychotropic drug is what allowed the initiates to “see” the visions of the
Gods and of the “return” of Persephone into the waiting arms of her mother.
The three aspects of the drama were critical, things done, shown and said.
“Together these [3 elements] constituted the secrets of Aporrita. The Dhromena were
those in which the Hierophant with the priestesses performed the drama of
Persephone and Demeter. The Dheiknymena were the sacred objects, especially the
Hiera. [“The candidate was instructed by the hierophant, and permitted to look within
the cista or chest, which contained the mystie serpent, the phallus, egg, and grains
sacred to Demeter.” (Taylor, 1891, 107)] The Legomena were the secret words and
ritual formulas.” (Nicholas Kephalas, The Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries, p
23).
“At the height of the celebrations a reaped ear of grain was shown to initiates”
(Bowden, 2010, 31). “Magnien,… maintained that first the cut wheat, symbolizing illum-
ination, was shown to the epoptai and then the phallus, symbol of the generating force
and of [the godman] Dionysos.” (Mylonas, 1961, 276).
“The Greek writer Theophrastus alludes to the idea that corn-grinding tools
were held to be sacred, so it may have been a mortar and pestle that were hidden in the
basket, the means of preparing the kykeon, the barley drink” and which symbolized the
phallus and the womb (Baring, 1991, 377-378) into which the seeds were placed. These
were the symbols of regeneration and rebirth.
Symbolism of the Death and Resurrection of the Godman
Walker stated, “In Demeter’s principal temple, called Eleusis, “Advent,”

important rites celebrated the advent of her Divine Child, the grain reborn from the
earth’s womb. Represented by her savior-son, this vegetation-god was variously
named Dionysus, Triptolemus, Iasion, or Elentheros, ‘the Liberator.’” The savior-son is
the mythical godman and during the rites of Demeter each initiate became the savior-
son. “Like grain, he was laid in a manger or winnowing basket. He was killed
(reaped), buried (planted), and resurrected (sprouted). His flesh was eaten as bread,
his blood was drunk as wine [wine of the grain]. He was deified at the Haloa, Festival of
the Threshing-Floor (Greek halos). From this Eleusinian apotheosis came a Christian
symbol of deification, the halo—and, of course, the concept of a savior sacramentally
[eaten]. The final revelation of the Eleusinian Mysteries was an ear of grain ‘reaped in
silence,’ showing simultaneously the Savior’s death … and the seed of his future life.
[***] The same symbol represented other vegetation-gods such as Syrian Adonis,
Tammuz, Osiris, the early agrarian Mars, and the Middle-Eastern Baal, ‘the Lord,’ a
consort of Astarte. At Astarte’s temple in Byblos, the ear of grain had a special name,
Shibboleth, adopted by the Jews as a magical password. [***] [p70] As Mistress of Earth
and Sea, Demeter held up an ear of grain and a dolphin in her iconic promise to
multiply loaves and fishes…. The Tarot version conveyed the same meaning of earth-
and-sea fertility through the Gnostic symbol adopted by Freemasons: an ear of grain
near a waterfall” (Walker, 1984, 70-71, italics added).
The Goddess Demeter was often called “the Corn Mother” and medieval Free-
masonry drew symbolism from Demeter as the “ancient Mistress of Earth and Sea,
particularly the masonic sacred image of Plenty: ‘an ear of corn near a fall of water.’
The ultimate Mystery was revealed at Eleusis in ‘an ear of corn reaped in silence’ – a
sacred fetish that the Jews called Shibboleth.” (Walker, 1996, 220).
It was believed, through the myth of Demeter and Persephone, that those who
consumed the emblems of God’s body (the bread and wine from grain), would make
God a part of their bodies and thereby be made one with the Divine. Desiring to
accomplish the same objective, various segments of the Catholic church began the
ritual of transubstantiation during the middle ages wherein the wafer and wine were
believed to transform into the literal body and blood of Christ (though not in appear-
ance) during Mass. By the 16th century the custom was officially adopted by the Cath-
olic church at the Council of Trent (1545-63) (Britannica). This custom of symbolically
eating the body and drinking the blood of Jesus is also done within the LDS church each
Sunday during sacrament meeting. These church sacraments descended from the
ancient Eleusinian sacrament.
The Eleusinian Mysteries had a ritual that was viewed by the initiates near the
end of the Mysteries. It was the hieros gamos, sacred marriage, or embrace between
the Priestess and Hierophant representing the embrace of God with man:
The most solemn part of the ceremony was that which has been described by
some writers as the hierogamy, or sacred marriage of Zeus and Demeter…. During the
celebration of the Mysteries the hierophant and hierophantide descended into a cave or
deep recess and, after remaining there for a time, they returned to the assembly,
surrounded seemingly by flames, and the hierophant, displaying to the gaze of the [86]
initiated, an ear of corn, exclaimed with a loud voice: ‘The divine Brimo has given birth
to the holy child Brimos: The strong has brought forth strength.’ [***] The torches of
the multitude were extinguished while the throng above awaited with anxious
suspense the return of the priest and priestess from the murky place into which they
had descended, for they believed their own salvation to depend upon the result of the
mystic congress [coitus between the hierophant and priestess]. (Wright, 1919, 85-86).
Tertullian wrote that the initiates would descend “’…into the darkness, and of
the solemn acts of intercourse between the hierophant and the priestess, alone toget-
her…. the torches [are] extinguished, and … the large, the numberless assembly of
common people believe their salvation lies in that which is being done by the two in
the darkness.’ [Then Walker states:] Certainly the people did so believe. The belief
comforted them with a conviction of having been saved from final dissolution after
death. The solemn acts of intercourse were said to bring about ‘regeneration and for-
giveness of sins.’” (S. Angus, The Mystery-Religions, 1975, p 97 as in Walker, 1984, 71-72).
“Asterius, Bishop of Amaseia at the turn of the fifth century AD… [stated] Is there
not performed the descent into darkness, the venerated congress [coitus] of the
Hierophant with the priestess, of him alone with her alone? Are not the torches
extinguished and does not the vast and countless assemblage believe that in what is
done by the two in the darkness is their salvation?” (Baring, 1991, 382). Harrison stated
“…the culminating ritual acts, acts by which union with the divine, the goal of all mystic
ceremonial, was at first held to be actually effected [literally performed], later sym-
bolized….” (Baring, 1991, 382).
Each initiate was to consider himself in the symbolic role of the hierophant
having sexual intercourse or union with the Goddess/God, which was meant to sym-
bolize the ultimate experience of being spiritually in union or spiritually embraced by
the Divine, thus attaining salvation in the next life.
Pindar wrote, ‘Happy is he that hath seen those rites ere he go beneath the earth
[he dies]; he knoweth life’s consummation, he knoweth its divine source.’ (John Lawson,
Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, p 563 as in Walker, 1984, 72).
“The marriage [union, coitus] between the hierophant [sym., initiate] and the
priestess…retained its original emphasis, where the male Bios – the life which [ann-
ually] begins and ends, unites with the female Zoe, the timeless principle of regen-
eration that does not die” (Baring, 1991, 383), integrating Bios back into the goddess,
after which the Goddess brings forth a new reborn Bios, symbol of fertility & Spring.
Later Christian Gnostic sects practiced sexual sacraments for the same reasons.
The Valentinians performed a “‘rite of spiritual marriage with angels in a nuptial
chamber,’ the manifestations of which were as much physical as spiritual.” (S. Angus, The
Mystery-Religions, 1975, 116, quoted in Walker, 1984, 72).
Creation of a mythical St. Valentine (patron of lovers) became part of the Luper-
calia, showing “the Goddess in her divine “fever” (febris) of sexual passion. After the
ceremony she became a virgin once more, to reconceive her Divine Child.” (Walker,
1984, 72).
The fever or sexual passion of the Goddess represents her spiritual power which
is felt by each initiate who embraces her in spiritual intercourse and who thereby
becomes her divine child, after which she retreats from that person and begins the
process anew with the next initiate and creates of him/her a new “Divine Child.”
“Sexuality … was also sacred because the ecstasy that accompanied it was the
nearest experience to the state of bliss associated with the divine existence of the god-
desses and gods. For this reason, sexual intercourse in early cultures was a ritual of
participation, a magical act of fertility. It was an expression of the divine because, in
their total abandonment to the sexual instinct inspired by the goddess, men and
women offered themselves as the vehicle of her regenerative power.” (Baring, 1991,
197).
“For a man, hero, or god, ultimate success was embodied in the hieros gamos
(sacred marriage) that insured his resurrection or immortality. [***] Men made sacred
marriages in Persephone’s “bridal chamber” at Eleusis, which guaranteed them a
blessed afterlife” (Walker, 1984, 169).
When a person connected with the Divine in a literal spiritual fashion, it
changed the initiate. He now knew more than other mortals, and no longer feared
death. Merging with the Divine substance gave him assurances concerning the remain-
ing part of his earth life and a guarantee in the next world to be with God and/or the
Goddess, which he did not previously have.
This guarantee of a blessed afterlife amounts to the same biblical concepts of
the more sure word of prophecy (2 Pet 1:19), making one’s calling and election sure (2
Pet 1:10), receiving the promise of eternal life (1 John 2:25), becoming a just man made
perfect (Heb 12:23), and having “…an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and
which entereth into that within the veil.” (Heb 6:19). Those who were initiated into the
Ancient Mysteries of the Goddess of Earth and Sea were promised the same blessings.
“Thou shalt appear in heaven, thou shalt traverse the sky, thou shalt be side by side
with the gods of the stars” (Walker, 1984, 118).
From what initiates have said, “…those who participated in the mysteries were
forever changed for the better and that they no longer feared death.” [***] They saw
themselves as “… immortal souls temporarily in mortal bodies. In the same way that
Persephone went down to the land of the dead and returned to that of the living each
year, so would every human being die only to live again on another plane of existence
or in another body.” (Joshua Mark, The Eleusinian Mysteries: The Rites of Demeter, pp 1-2).
“A curious Talmudic legend has it that the cherubim in Solomon’s Temple were
in the form of male and female. When the Israelites came to the Temple on pilgrimage,
the curtain in front of the Ark was drawn aside and the cherubim were seen
interlocked as if in sexual congress [intercourse]. This was said to be a miraculous
indication that God’s love for Israel resembles the love of man and woman” (myjewish
learning.com).
A 2nd century Jewish record states: ‘When strangers entered the sanctuary they
saw the Cherubim intertwined with each other…they have seen their nakedness.’ ‘The
Cherubim were joined together, and were clinging to, and embracing each other, like a
male who embraces a female [in coitus].’ In other words, the two Cherubic images
were of two angelic beings in sexual union, one representing the male energy and the
other the female energy: just as the ancient Egyptians pictured the earth in union with
heaven! [see below] The sexual symbolism of the Temple of Solomon (which had God's
approval) came to a peak in the exhibition of the sexual Cherubim in the holiest place!
And it is in that union that God speaks between the Cherubim.’” (biblicalresearchinstitute
.com.au/what-was-the-secret-of-the-temple-cherubim.html).
(Above: In the ancient Egyptian Heliopolitan cosmogony, Geb the earth God
copulates with Nut the sky goddess to create other Gods. It symbolizes
the union of man on earth with the Gods/Goddesses of heaven.
This painted scene is from the Papyrus of Tameniu, 21st Dynasty.)
Down through the centuries the sexual embrace continued in importance as it
portrayed the spiritual rapture that an earthly person would feel when enveloped in the
“fever” or substance of the Divine. When Masonry was reestablished in 1717 England, it
contained the ritual of the five points of fellowship embrace between the initiate and
God. When Smith created his endowment, he adapted it from Masonry and placed the
five points of fellowship embrace at the veil, where the mortal man or woman would be
embraced by God.
The “knee to knee” aspect of the five point embrace was an ancient euphemism
that referred to the male and female genitals or sexual intercourse which highlights the
embrace at the veil as being spiritual intercourse with God.
The ultimate objective of the Mystery rituals was the return of the lost soul to his
Maker. In Homer’s Homeric Hymn to Demeter it expresses this concept …
…the Mysteries are not about Persephone at all, but about the relationship
between the people of Eleusis and [the Goddess] Demeter, and about the experience of
Demophoon, who has climbed the knees of the goddess, slept in her arms, felt her
breath upon him, and then been deprived of that contact and comfort. [***] [47] It is
striking that our earliest witness to the Mysteries identifies the theme of direct contact
between a goddess and a mortal as the focus of the interpretation of them.” The
Eleusinian Mysteries were used to express the fundamental truth that “… anyone who
has been in direct contact with the gods is [48] forever transformed by the experience.
[***] In the middle of these public festivities was a sequence of events in which the
personal experience of individuals was central. Behind the walls of the sanctuary at
Eleusis they [the initiates] met the goddess and experienced her grace and power at first
hand. (Bowden, 2010, 46-48, italics added).
Regarding the overall aspects of the mysteries, “Theon of Smyrna said the first
part of the Eleusinian Mysteries was purification, the third, reception, the fourth,
investiture (the binding of the head and fixing of the crowns), the fifth was the friendship
and communion with God. What the second part was, he does not say. The Lesser
Mysteries represented the miseries of the soul in subjection to the body, while the
Greater Mysteries signified the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter…. [***] The
most sublime part of the final revealing consisted in beholding the gods themselves in-
vested with a resplendent light. The purifications were symbols of the disciplines required
for the re-ascent of the soul to its divine condition.” (Nicholas Kephalas, “The Wisdom of the
Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries”, pp 26-27, italics added). The same is true of the modern
initiatic rites of Masonry and Mormonism.
Regarding the second part Theon of Smyrna stated: “. . .but after purification, the
reception of the sacred rites succeeds” suggesting that the rites are entered into before
the third or reception part. (Taylor, 1891, 85).
During the initiation process in darkness, “the initiate was assigned a mysta-
gogos, someone who would lead them through the rituals….” (Bowden, 2010, 32)
symbolic of the Divine guiding her child on earth through the darkness. This is also
provided for within the Masonic and LDS rituals.
According to one author. . .
Those initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries were taught that the requisites
for happiness in this life and in that after death were … whole-hearted and sincere
love, continuous practice of charity toward all, and love for the preservation of
freedom. It was the concept of freedom, especially, which drew … new strength, direc-
tion and purpose. [***] Those who came in contact with this teachings’ flame were
kindled with love and enlivened with the hope of eternal happiness. They were taught
that such happiness could be experienced only after an ardent search for the truth, the
practice of moderation, and service for the benefit of their fellow beings. ” (Nicholas
Kephalas, “The Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries”, p 18). And “he whose
initiation is recent… is amazed when he sees anyone having a godlike face or form,
which is the expression of divine beauty. (Kephalas, Ibid, p 16).
Notice that the four principles required for happiness, in this life and the next, are
truth, freedom, and love which leads to beauty. When internally learned and lived, these
four principles guide the initiate on his divine journey within the earthly darkness and
aids in the transformation into a divine character, preparatory for the possibility of an
embrace with the Divine.
The ancient Egyptian Goddess Maat “…was the personification of ‘Truth’”
(Budge, 1969, I:296). Hathor was the Goddess of love and beauty.
Rituals and Purification
Participation in the Eleusinian rites was considered essential in order for the
initiate to be with the Gods in the next life. The initiates were informed that “… those
who arrive in Hades [the next life] uninitiated or without having participated in the
ceremonies will remain in mire; but those who have purified themselves and have taken
part in the mysteries will, when they arrive there, dwell among the gods.” (Nicholas
Kephalas, The Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries, p 24). This correlates with
the rituals of the ancient Egyptians that required initiates to be cleansed of the evils of
the body, and “anointed” or taught the principles of how to overcome life’s evils by
returning to rational and just living.
According to Plato, the ultimate design of the Mysteries “…was to lead us back to
the principles from which we descended, that is, to a perfect enjoyment of intellectual
(spiritual) good . . . and the different purifications exhibited in these rites, in con-
junction with initiation and the epopteia (or highest degree) were symbols of the grad-
ation of virtues requisite to this re-ascent of the soul.” (Nicholas Kephalas, The Wisdom of
the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries, p 16 and pp 7-9).
In Plato’s famous dialogue on the immortality of the soul, the Phaedo, he states
that “… our mysteries had a very real meaning: he that has been purified and initiated
shall dwell with the Gods.” (69:d, F.J. Church trans as quoted in Joshua Mark, The Eleusinian
Mysteries: The Rites of Demeter, p 4). Those who have these mysteries are “stewards of
the mysteries of God” (Piatigorsky, 1997, 159).
The ancient mysteries did not teach that a person could ascend to the Gods if his
heart was impure, regardless of the power of the priesthood or of the rituals. “Matter
was regarded by the Egyptians as a certain mire or mud. They called matter the dregs
or sediment of the first life. Before the first purification the candidate for initiation into
the Eleusinian Mysteries was besmeared with clay or mud which it was the object of the
purification to wash away.” (Wright, 1919, 96).
The early Egyptian and Eleusinian rites dealt with purification and making sure
the heart was not burdened with evil. Moreover, the rituals relating to the purification
of the soul, accomplished symbolically by washing off the earthly mud in the sea, and
the sacrifice of piglets as in the Eleusinian rituals, or with a washing and anointing by
the Egyptians, were symbols revealing what needed to be done inwardly within the
initiate and not that it had actually occurred during the ritual. Again, “the purifications
were symbols of the disciplines required for the re-ascent of the soul to its divine
condition.” (Nicholas Kephalas, “The Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian Mysteries”, pp 26-
27, italics added).
The Egyptians believed that “upon death, one entered the underworld (Duat),
where Osiris, the God of the afterlife, weighed the person’s heart on a scale against the
feather of Ma’at, the Goddess of order, truth and righteousness. If the heart weighed
more than the feather, meaning that the person was more wicked than good, then the
heart would be devoured by Ammit” the Destroyer. If that happened, the person
“…would die a second death and be completely annihilated from existence”. (The Papyrus
of Ani, Plate 3, contained within The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 1994, by Dr. Raymond
Faulkner; also Wikipedia, Judgement (afterlife)). “The flames of the deepest portion of it
[Gehenna] are able to consume human souls utterly, which fire upon earth can never
do.” (Budge, 1969, I:274).
This Egyptian doctrine of second death was also taught by early LDS leaders.
“The second death will decompose all tabernacles over whom it gains ascendancy; and
this is the effect of the second death, the tabernacles go back to their native element.”
(Pres. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses (JD) 1856, 4:54). “I believe in annihilation in
one degree. Men will sin so that they will be damned spiritually and temporally. There
will be a dissolution of the natural body and of the spirit, and they will go back into
their native element…. This is what is called the second death.” (Pres. Heber C. Kimball,
1857, JD 5:95; See also R. Ware, “Second Death Compilation”, 1974). This idea ceased to be
taught by LDS leaders around 1900.
“The candidate … acknowledged [that] his or her soul had descended from
immortality to a mortal state and that by purification the candidate would re-ascend to
his or her former state of perfection.” (Nicholas Kephalas, The Wisdom of the Sages: The
Eleusinian Mysteries, p 12). The process of purification appears to have been based in
how well the individual was able to internalize the principles of reason, logic and virtue
within his core being and not upon his reception of rituals. Those principles, according
to the previous author, were learning and integrating truth (which incorporates proper
logic and valid evidence), freedom, love and beauty within one’s soul. As the soul of the
person strives to understand and apply these four principles, the spirit of Sophia
expands the person’s understanding to apply them. The action of Sophia (the spirit of
wisdom) upon the person is symbolized by the anointing of oil.
While the rituals within Freemasonry and Mormonism take a person on a sym-
bolic journey, and promise the candidate entrance back into the presence of God, they
(the rituals, including the second anointing) do not have the power to accomplish that by
themselves for they cannot save the sinner, nor those that do not transform themselves
spiritually. According to the ancient teachings, one cannot be saved in a corrupt state.
He cannot be the opposite of the four principles and think he will still be guaranteed
exaltation in such a state.
To actually partake of the real “Tree of Life” which is symbolic of the doorway
leading back to the Gods/Goddesses, one must first be inwardly transformed to a
higher level of being. The sword was placed to guard the tree so that the unworthy
could not partake. The actual embrace of an initiate with the Divine at the veil or door of
heaven is exactly the meaning of the symbolic embrace enacted within Masonry in the
Lodge and within the LDS endowment at the veil in the Temple. Receipt of the second
anointing ritual may cause one to think his salvation is secure, but the real test of such
worthiness is to actually know if he or she is transformed enough in character as to
merit a real embrace by the Divine.
Diogenes, who was not an initiate, is said to have exclaimed when he heard the
verses of Sophocles describing the initiated as blessed and the uninitiated as con-
demned to eternal suffering, ‘What sayest thou? Will a thief of potatoes meet with
better luck in the hands of destiny when he died, because he is an initiate, than will
Epaminondas?” (Nicholas Kephalas, “The Wisdom of the Sages: The Eleusinian
Mysteries”, p 19). At another time, Diogenes stated that it was ludicrous to think that
high ranking soldiers and such folk are to “dwell in the mud [hell, mud], while certain
folk of no account will live in the isles of the Blest simply because they have been
initiated.” (Diogenes Laertios, vi, 2, 39 as quoted in Mylonas, 1961, 266).
The ancient Egyptian and Eleusinian Mysteries were encoded with symbols,
allegories, and metaphors which are now a part of the rituals of Freemasonry and
Mormonism. Modern initiates must learn to spiritually understand them in order to
walk the path that is given in the Mysteries. Freke and Gandy wrote:
Superficially a myth was an entertaining story, but to the initiated it was a

sacred code that contained profound spiritual teachings. Plato comments, “It looks as if
those also who established rites of initiation for us were no fools, but that there is a
hidden meaning in their teachings.” He explains that it is “those who have given their
lives to true philosophy” who will grasp the “hidden meaning” encoded in the Mystery
myths, and so become completely identified with the godman in an experience of
mystical enlightenment.
The ancient philosophers were not so foolish as to believe that the Mystery myths
were literally true, but wise enough to recognize that they were an easy introduction to
the profound mystical philosophy at the heart of the Mysteries. [***]
The Mysteries were divided into various levels of initiation, which led an
initiate step by step through ever deepening levels of understanding. The number of
levels of initiation varied in different Mystery traditions, but essentially the initiate was
led from the Outer Mysteries, in which the myths were understood superficially as
religious stories, to the Inner Mysteries, in which the myths were revealed as spiritual
allegories. First the initiate was ritually purified. Then they were taught the secret
teachings on a one-to-one basis. The highest stage was when the initiate understood
the true meaning of the teachings and finally experienced what Theon of Smyrna calls
“friendship and interior communion with God.” (Freke, 1999, 21-22, italics added).
The Embraced Initiate Is Freed From Rules
After an initiate is spiritually touched or “embraced” by the Divine, he moves

into a different relationship with the Divine and with man. The Gnostics referred to
this as reaching Gnosis. Regarding those who reached Gnosis, the Pagan Christians
taught…
…that there was a spiritual understanding deeper than an externally imposed

set of ethical rules, and that human beings who were in touch with their divine nature
would act intuitively and spontaneously in harmony with the whole of life. The Gnostic
sage Basilides explains that “spiritual” Christians [Gnostic christians who have
experienced “Gnosis”] are moral simply “by nature.” Obeying moral codes may be a
part of the journey of purification that leads to Gnosis, but having arrived, all ethical
rules can be abandoned as the initiate will naturally act well---although not necessarily
conventionally. [Clement writes:] ‘Definite outward observances cease to have any
value for one whose whole being is brought into an abiding harmony with that which is
eternal, … All the action, then, of a man possessed of Gnosis is right action…’ Through
mystically experiencing the true God of [the Gnostic or mythic] Jesus, the Gnostics
claimed that they were ‘redeemed’ or ‘released’ from the power of the tyrannical
Jehovah and all the rules and regulations he had imposed on the Jews. Basilides and his
successor Valentinus, the great Gnostic masters of Alexandria [believed] the only rule
was that there are no rules. (Freke, 1999, 107-108, italics added).
“This was the true gnosis [being touched or embraced by God, not a knowledge
about God], and for those who had attained its blessed state, there was no further need
of the Law, and they could spurn social conventions.” (Allegro, 1992, 143).
“Pagan and Christian Gnostics imagined the initiatory journey to be about
awakening the King within. In the Pagan Mysteries, the initiate was ‘enthroned’ as a
king as part of the initiation ceremonies [as also with the LDS in the 2nd anointing].
Pagan Gnostics of the Cynic school called the realized initiate a ‘King’ in the ‘Kingdom
of God.’ Likewise, Christian Gnostics taught that when we realize [i.e., experience]
Gnosis we will become ‘self-ruled’ kings in the Kingdom of God [sym., ourselves] and
‘reign over the All.’ They imagined the triumphant Christian initiate crowned with a
halo of light, declaring: ‘The light has become a crown on my head.’” (Freke, 2001, 20).
Although the second anointing and Royal Arch degree pronounce men as kings
and priests (and in the LDS, women as queens and priestesses), it does not make their
characters such. The rituals declare what they may attain. The true spiritual initiatic
journey was designed to awaken the king and queen within each person, caused by the
spiritual transformation that comes upon one as he implements the 4 divine principles
into his life. Properly governing one’s life is akin to ruling a kingdom.
“The initiates become the Dispensation of the Sons [and daughters] of Light on
earth, who receive whatever they desire. [***] When they of this earth become exalted
by the mysteries, they will be with me in the Topos of the Light, and each of them will
be a king [or Queen] over his dominion (emanations, probolai)... according to his mea-
sure of glory.” (as quoted in Nibley, 1975, 278).
Early Gnostic Jews of the New Testament wrote: “But ye have an unction
[anointing] from the Holy One, and ye know all things. [***] And this is the promise that
he hath promised us, even eternal life. [***] But the anointing which ye have received of
him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing
teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye
shall abide in him.” (1 John 2:20, 25, 27). The “anointing” referred to here is the power
of Sophia or Wisdom which accompanies the embrace of the Divine.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him
as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is
pure. [***] Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit sin; for his [God’s] seed
[embrace, substance] remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God”
(1 John 3:2, 3, 9).
Section II
Female Sexual & Reproductive Symbolism of the Ancient Temples
Anciently, “the entrance to [the Goddess] Inanna’s byre or sheepfold [later,

temple] was the entrance to the womb whence all living things came forth…. The
entrance was marked by a special gate, symbolic of the vulva of the goddess. In earliest
times two bundles of reeds with curved ends stood at the entrance to the cow-byre of
the goddess…. Later, they became the principle images that mark the presence of
Inanna. They stood on either side of the temple entrance…. [***] One of the oldest ritual
vases of carved stone … shows Inanna standing at the gate of her temple, marked by the
two stylized reed pillars” (Baring, 1991, 194-195). These
two pillars of Inanna later became the 2 pillars at the
front of the temples of the Goddess.
[Left: Layout of the ancient temples. Originally the
two pillars were the labia majora (or vulva) on either side
of the temple entrance and did not represent the phallus
as in later Christian renditions.]
Dr. John Allegro stated that anciently “the temple
was designed with a large measure of uniformity over
the whole of the Near East now recognizable as a
microcosm of the womb. It was divided into three parts;
the Porch, representing the lower end of the vagina up
to the hymen, or Veil; the Hall, or vagina itself; and the
inner sanctum, or Holy of Holies, the uterus. The priest,
dressed as a penis, anointed with various saps and
resins as presenting the divine semen, enters through
the doors of the Porch, the ‘labia’ of the womb, past the Veil or ‘hymen’ and so into the
Hall.” (Allegro, 1970, 25; also Allegro, 1992, 122-136).
The Biblical Research Institute explained the design and purpose of the ancient
temple:
“The sexual significance of the two Cherubim can only be appreciated when we
realise [sic] that the design of the Temple of God was in the shape, symbolically, of the
female generative organs. And, once a year, the High Priest (the word "Cohen" -- priest -
- literally meant "guardian of [God's] semen") would enter the Temple through the east
gate, walk through the outer curtains (labia majora) of the Temple vestibule…, and then
past the inner curtains… [or hymen, and through the vaginal orifice to the veil] that
guarded the Holy of Holies (the uterus) -- the most holy place in the Temple -- dressed
up like a giant phallus, anointed with various oils (types of semen). He would then
perform certain rituals (sexual intercourse) before the Ark of the Covenant (the cervix)
and with a sacrifice (ejaculation; symbolic of impregnation) take away the sins of God's
people (conception would occur). This all pre-figured, in a symbolic way, the coming of
God-in-flesh to save mankind. It is marvelous symbolism indeed! The Cherubim,
entwined in sexual intercourse, symbolized the awesome plan and purpose of Deity in
reproducing himself in human beings. Recall that salvation is essentially the product or
outcome of the holy Spirit of God united with our own human spirit. Proof? Conversion
is referred to in the Messianic Scriptures of the Yeshua Party (the so-called "NT") as a
"begettal" and being "born" again (Jam 1.18; 1 Jn 5.1,18; 1 Pet 1.3). Christians are
referred to as the sperma of God (1 Jn 3.9) [“Whosoever is born of God doeth not
commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of
God.”]. Impregnation results in conferring on us and in us the very Divine Nature of God.
(Biblical Research Institute, “What Was the Secret of the Temple Cherubim?”
(biblicalresearchinstitute.com.au/what-was-the-secret-of-the-temple-cherubim.html;
italics added).
[Right: The design of the Jerusalem

Temple showing the same design as the ancient
Goddess temples.]
The earliest temples were considered
to be the dwelling place of the goddess and is
where the temple priestesses performed their
sacred sexual duties to temple visitors. It was
believed that physical union with the Priest-
ess meant union with the Goddess. Baring
and Cashford wrote:
“Inanna and Ishtar were the

goddesses of sexual love and fertility….”
Their role was to ensure that the fertility
of the land continued unabated, for all life forms. “The priestesses who served in the
temples of Inanna and Ishtar were the vehicles of her creative life in their sexual union
with the men who came there to perform a sacred ritual. [***] At this time meta-
physical ideas were embodied in the sexual intercourse performed ritually in the
temple precinct itself, for the fertility of human, animal and plant life depended upon
the enactment of this ritual in a sacred place where men and women participated
magically in the generation of the life of the goddess. [***] It is difficult for our
fragmented consciousness to comprehend this act of participation. Sexual intercourse
and giving birth were two channels, through which the divine energy of the goddess
poured into life. [***] Sexuality was the vehicle of bringing life into the world and was a
sacred act. It was also sacred because the ecstasy that accompanied it was the nearest
experience to the state of bliss associated with the divine existence of the goddesses and
gods. For this reason, sexual intercourse in early cultures was a ritual of participation,
a magical act of fertility. It was an expression of the divine because, in their total
abandonment to the sexual instinct inspired by the goddess, men and women offered
themselves as the vehicle of her generative power. The priestesses of Inanna and
Ishtar, through their union with the men who came to the temple, bestowed on them an
ecstatic experience that was, so to speak, the ‘life’ of the goddess.” (Baring, 1991, 197).
When an initiate came to the temple to join with the Priestess, he would natur-
ally have all of his clothes removed, have water poured over his entire body and be
washed clean of the dirt and grime which had accumulated upon him since his last
washing. He would then be anointed with perfumes and oils over his entire body to
make him sweet smelling for his union with the Priestess. Initiates would then unite
sexually with the Priestess so that they could be united spiritually with the Goddess.
The Masonic and LDS initiatory rituals of washing and anointing perform the
same functions they did anciently. The initiate is first made naked (LDS changed this in
2005) and then is washed clean over his entire body to symbolize being cleansed of the
“mud” that had accumulated within his character over time. He is then anointed over
his entire body to symbolize that his character has become sweet smelling spiritually
and is ready for union with the Goddess, God, or Divine which occurs symbolically later
during the ritual.
“One of the functions of the high priestess, known as the Entu, was to take the
role of the goddess in the ritual union of the sacred marriage. In this, the king took the
role of her bridegroom, personifying the son-lover of the goddess. It is possible that
the temple unions were the source of the belief that the children born of them were of
half divine and half human parentage, as was Gilgamesh….” (Baring, 1991, 199).
Anciently, the grail cup “represented the temple itself, whose ‘door’ was a yoni.
In India to this day, the word for a temple means ‘womb.’ [***] Since the Yoni Yantra
was widely recognized as a symbol of [the ancient] Goddess, representing the ‘door’ of
her Holy of Holies, consequently it would have implied a mystical process of initiation
into her central mysteries.” (Walker, 1984, 53-55).
The ancient temple doors always faced east (the LDS Salt Lake Temple and door
face East) so that the Sun’s morning rays (in ancient literature God, or the Son of God,
was represented by the Sun) rising in the east could penetrate the open doors of the
temple, female or vulva and onward towards the Veil (hymen), into the holy place
(vagina) reaching the Holy of Holies (womb) in the West. The masculine light (seed)
penetrates the feminine darkness where new life is created. Thus the light rays or
particles of the morning SUN penetrate the inner corridors of the temple, symbolic of
how the SON’s rays or semen penetrate the reproductive areas of the Priestess. The
seed grows and in nine months the new life leaves in the opposite direction in which it
entered, leaving the darkness of the womb and entering the light of the world, going
from west to east, “sprouting forth” as did new vegetation that arose from the darkness
of the “earthly womb,” from beneath the ground into the light of day. Demeter was the
Goddess of agriculture and these symbols belonged to her.
Anciently only the high priest was allowed to enter the holy of holies once a
year, dressed as a penis and covered with oils and perfumes, representing sperm. This
has reference to the idea that while many sperm make it into the Holy Place, only one
spermatozoon is able to enter the egg within the womb, which can only take place once
a year. Once the egg is fertilized no further visits by mature male sperm is possible for
that egg for 9 months. The fertilized egg seals itself up and the cervix, the opening to
the womb is then sealed which prevents any other spermatozoon from entering the
holy of holies.
After birth, ovulation usually does not return in women for about 10-12 weeks,
especially for those who nurse their newborn, making the total time about 1 year. The
1 year also represents the cycle in nature where the seed is planted, harvested (which
occurs over 8-9 months), and the soil again becomes dormant for 3-4 months during
the barren time of the wintery part of the year.
At the moment Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn open (Matt 27:51).
This is a Gnostic metaphor, meaning he tore the hymen of the Mother Goddess as he
was entering her womb at death. The tomb was an ancient symbol of the womb of the
Goddess into which the deceased went and from which they emerged reborn. Jesus
went into the tomb/womb and emerged 3 days later resurrected or reborn. All new
life springs forth from the womb of the Goddess. “Placing a person’s remains within
the tomb returned him or her to the goddess’ womb, from which she renewed life”
(Gimbutas, 2001, 66). Hence the origin of the universal belief that the bodies of all the
deceased will one day rise again in a resurrection from the tomb/womb of the God-
dess.
Freke and Gandy wrote:
In the New Testament … the mystical marriage of Jesus and the Goddess in ‘the
bridal chamber’ … is symbolized by the tearing of the veil of the Jerusalem Temple at
the moment that Jesus dies on the cross. The veil covered the secret inner sanctum of
the Temple, the ‘holy of holies’, which represents the bridal chamber. [***] The veil
represents the Goddess. When Jesus dies, the Temple veil is torn. The hymen is rent.
The two are made one. The mystical marriage is consummated. The sexual imagery
connecting the holy of holies in the Temple with the ‘bridal chamber’ was not a
Christian innovation. A Jewish Talmudic tradition states: ‘When Israel used to make
the pilgrimage, the priests would roll up the veil between the temple and holy of holies
and show them two cherubim entwined there, one with the other, and say: ‘Behold!
Your love for God is like the love of male and female.’ The Hebrew word for
‘knowledge’ is daath, which also means ‘sexual union.’ Gnosis truly is ‘knowledge’ in
the Biblical sense! It is the coming together of the opposites in such intimacy that they
become one. (Freke, 2001, 159-160, italics added).
The abundant sexual imagery anciently symbolized each person’s descent from
the East of the temple, traveling into the darkness in the West. There, in the West, in
the Womb of the Goddess, the initiate dies and is reworked into a new person who then
leaves the West and travels back out into the light, reborn. After rebirth the person has
more work to be done, symbolic of Jesus’ 40 days on earth prior to his ascent into the
light of the East.
Experiencing the Divine nature of the Goddess was viewed by the ancients as the
most important saving event a person could ever have. It was the highest point that
the ancient mysteries could bring to a person. All the symbolic myths and rituals were
to teach the initiate how to transform his life so that he could elevate himself spiritually
and make himself ready for the embrace of the Divine, which gave him or her the
assurance of salvation in the next world.
Development of the Hiram Abiff Story
Historically, the Masonic rituals did not originally teach the idea that their rites
descended from Hiram Abiff who worked on Solomon’s temple. In the earliest Masonic
“charges”, the “Regius Manuscript of 1390”, the Solomon temple is not mentioned at all,
which means the modern story of Hiram Abiff would not have existed since it relies upon
the existence of Solomon’s temple.
“The tradition [of Solomon’s temple] begins with the second known oldest
manuscript called the ‘Cooke Manuscript of 1410’. [***] In the ‘Cooke Manuscript’,
mention of the building of the Temple is quite short, but with each manuscript that
followed it becomes more prominent until by the beginning of the sixteenth century
(when the ‘Dowland Manuscript’ was written about 1500), the tradition had become
more elaborate and established. From that time until the present day, it has been a
part of Speculative Masonry” (Homer Zumwalt, 33rd, “King Solomon’s Temple”, p 1).
Actual palaces of ancient Kings have been unearthed such as the Palace of
Sargon II, King of Assyria, the temple of Hercules, and the 8th century BCE temple at
Tainat in Syria. The building plan of each of these are similar in that they contain a
porch with pillars, a main hall/holy place, and holy of holies (Homer Zumwalt, 33rd, “King
Solomon’s Temple”, p 4). The LDS temples also have the same design, with a porch
(entrance), the holy place (celestial room) and holy of holies.
Section III
The Descent, Journey & Ascent Motif

Within Freemasonry and the LDS Endowment
“In Freemasonry there are two symbolic temples. The first relates to Ancient
Craft Masonry [the first 3 degrees] and represents life in the present [caused by the
descent and journey in mortality]. As such, it must be destroyed. The second temple
relates to the higher degrees, in particular the Royal Arch. It symbolizes eternal life,
which must be built on the foundation of the destroyed temple” (Karg, 2007, 90) which
represents the ascent.
For the Royal Arch Masons, the first and second temples are symbolic of the old
and new self that are built within them, the new one being built upon the symbolic
ruins of the old. This same symbolism holds true for the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples
that were actually built.
In 1836 Kirtland, Ohio, certain male members were given the Old and New
Testament rituals of washing, anointing, feet washing, and the last supper. Ultimately
the saints had to abandon the temple in Kirtland. The church moved to Nauvoo, Illinois
where they built a second temple upon the figurative “foundation” or ruins of the first.
In this second temple the saints were given additional rituals which included the
endowment and second anointing.
“Only one Degree is conferred in a [Holy Royal Arch] Chapter, and this relates to
the rebuilding of the [metaphorical] Temple of Solomon”. (MacNulty, 2006, 185). Each
Masonic candidate is told to build an “ethereal or spiritual body”, “a house not made
with hands . . . but eternal and heavenly.” [***] “. . . as our mortal visible body has been
built up gradually. . .so Man has within him the capacity to raise thereupon, and to
evolve from himself, an immortal invisible “super-structure,” an “airy” castle or fort-
ress into which his conscious soul will retreat and clothe itself when its earthly vesture
falls away. The erection of the super-structure is known in Masonic mysticism as
“building King Solomon’s Temple,” which every Mason must build for himself.” (Wilms-
hurst, 1932, 25).
Symbolism of the Motif in the Four Veils
“The [Masonic] Royal Arch name owes its origin to one of the central myths of
ancient Egypt: ‘. . . the imaginary arch made in the heavens by the course of King Osiris,
the Sun, from the vernal [spring] to the autumnal [fall] equinox. The signs through
which he passes in forming this semicircle, including those of the equinox, being seven,
the number of grades or steps required to be taken by the Mason to entitle him to the
honours of this [Royal Arch] degree” (Piatigorsky, 1997, 128).
“The Royal Arch, like the other great mysteries, contains a scenic representation
of a journey from this world to the next. In the way are four guarded passes, called
vails [sic], emblematic of the equinoxes and solstices, allegorically denominated gates
of heaven” through which the candidates must pass. The final “Royal Arch Captain” is
“prohibited from transporting souls across the lake or river Acheron to the Elysian
fields, the heaven of the ancients, without the signet [sign] of the judges, who were
appointed to examine the characters of the deceased, and to grant or withhold their
permission accordingly. [***] The candidates, after having passed the four vails, by
giving the signs and passwords appropriate to each, are admitted into the presence of
the Grand Council [of Gods], by means of a signet … with the word Zer-ubba-bel [king]
engraved upon it” where they are finally able to receive “the sacred name of God”
(Piatigorsky, 1997, 135-139, italics added).
The LDS endowment also has a scenic representation of a journey from this
world to the next, and in the way are four veils through which an initiate must pass,
and each veil has 4 names, signs and tokens. The four guarded veils are the portals to
the four rooms, the creation, telestial, terrestrial, and celestial. The drama of the
biblical story of Adam and Eve is enacted and all initiates are to take on the role of
Adam and Eve, and to consider their journey as their own. The allegory and symbolism
of this myth is designed to symbolically instruct initiates as to what they must do to
reenter God’s presence just as the initiates did during the ancient mystery rites.
Prior to passage through the four portals of the endowment, the LDS initiate must
first pass through four sections or stations in the Initiatory which depicts his journey
from pre-earth to mortality to post earth life.
The initiate enters the first section of the initiatory which symbolizes his
entrance into his physical body and the physical world. In earlier versions of the
Initiatory, the initiate would place the garment (which represents the glory he had
prior to entering the darkness of the world) onto a bar and slide it through to the
fourth section and then stands naked of his light as did Adam and Eve after their fall,
waiting for further instruction. This first section is reminiscent of the building of the
first temple that is corrupt which must be undone.
The initiate is then invited to enter the second section where he is ritually
washed clean. In the 1836 Kirtland and 1845 Nauvoo temples, LDS initiates stood or
laid naked in a tub and were washed over their entire body, pronouncing them clean.
In later years this changed to the temple worker just touching various parts of the body
with his or her wet finger and thereby pronounce the initiate clean. This change in the
washing removed the visceral feeling of cleansing the entire body which the ancient
initiates experienced when they were cleansed of the mud on their bodies in the sea.
Years later, LDS initiates began wearing “shields” which covered their nudity during
the initiatory ritual (for modesty sake) but had no symbolic significance.
The washing was and is symbolic of the personal work the initiate has yet to do
in extracting himself from irrational thinking and impurities. This relates to the Lesser
Mysteries of purification which was necessary in order to receive the Greater Mys-
teries and to become “sweet smelling” so that the Divine would be willing to “embrace”
the person. The cleansing must occur before the spiritual “perfumes and oils” of the
spirit can do their work.
(Note: In 2005 LDS initiates stopped going through the initiatory naked and
began wearing the garment throughout the entire initiatory ritual. As a result, the
symbolism of how one enters this life (naked of their pre-earth light) and that the
garment of light will be reacquired on the other side after death, is now gone. This new
change in the ritual now symbolically portrays the idea that their garment of light
remains with them from birth throughout life, which is a message that neither Smith
nor the ancient Mysteries meant to convey.)
The initiate then passes into the third section. Early LDS initiates actually had
oil poured over their heads which ran over their naked bodies. This was later replaced
with the worker placing a drop of oil on the finger and lightly touching certain parts of
the initiate’s body. Anciently the oil was poured over the body which made the initiate
“sweet smelling” in preparation for meeting the Priestess/Goddess. Symbolically this
emphasized the need to change one’s character.
Initiates who mated with the ancient Priestess were looked upon as a “godman”
and was considered to be a king. The anointing by the Spirit (symbolized by the oil)
elevated his character to that of king of his own kingdom and priest of his own temple,
hence the LDS initiate is anointed and ordained to become a king and priest. The
throne upon which the initiate sits is emblematic of his spiritual attainment. This is
symbolic of the work which takes place within him as the Spirit of Sophia or Wisdom
transforms his spiritual being, making it “sweet smelling” for the possibility of an actual
union with the Divine.
Having been washed and anointed, he stands naked of all mortal pretense, free
of guile and deception, ready for spiritual union with the Divine. He is then invited into
the fourth section where he is greeted by the Divine who gives him further light and
knowledge. Anciently this was symbolically portrayed through the Egyptian embrace
ritual and the Eleusinian hieros gamos. If no embrace occurs in this life, passage into
the fourth section represents his own death where his garment of light is returned to
the initiate. This is his descent from his pre-earth life, his journey in mortality, and his
ascent back to the realm of light and is meant to instruct the initiate in the divine path
that will bring the initiate to “God” or the divine.
Symbolism of the Motif within the LDS Endowment Rooms
The LDS initiate leaves the Initiatory room and enters the creation room which
is the first of 4 rooms and 4 veils, as with the Royal Arch veils.
The first room (creation) represents one’s life prior to coming to earth, living in
the presence of the Divine in “paradise.” This is where the symbolic Adam and Eve
lived prior to their Fall. Here the initiate lived in light, glory and happiness. This realm
of light and glory is represented by the ancient Sun God Ra at the zenith of the sky.
This is the point of the summer solstice where the fullness of light exists.
Adam and Eve are then forced out of paradise where they begin their down-
ward journey to the earth. This correlates with the ancient drama story of Persephone
who was abducted and forced to descend to hell/hades/mortality. This downward
journey is symbolized by the descent of the Sun God Ra. It occurs when Ra leaves the
summer solstice and arrives at the autumnal equinox (at sunset), where summer is no
longer and darkness and death begin. This is the descent of each initiate into darkness
and the beginning of spiritual death.
Entering the telestial realm, Adam and Eve (i.e., each initiate) are without
memory in a new world of darkness. The ancient Egyptians equated this to Ra dipping
below the horizon where his light is extinguished. His garment of light is gone, waiting
for him on the other side.
Once in mortality the initiate begins his journey in darkness. In Masonry, he
creates a corrupt and material temple composed of the desires, habits, drama, harmful
behavior, false beliefs and ideas built from the deception of the world. This temple
must eventually be destroyed and a new one built. This realm represents the Aaronic
(temporal) or Lesser mysteries. Knowledge gained here cannot save, it can only point
the way.
His journey in darkness continues. When he reaches the midnight of darkness,
the point of the winter solstice, he enters the terrestrial realm and begins to move
from total darkness to the horizon, a place of higher spiritual understanding and know-
ledge, towards the door of light. This realm represents the Melchizedek (spiritual) or
Greater Mysteries. Here he builds a new divine (inner) temple with the help of the
Goddess Sophia. Knowledge gained here cannot save, it can only point the way.
Building the spiritual temple lies in the initiate’s ability to understand and incul-
cate four principles, 1) gaining a knowledge of the truth, and aligning one’s beliefs to
the truth using evidence and logic and removing the opposite; 2) reclaiming the right to
be free so that he can walk the path that opens to him and allowing all others the same
right, the freedom to choose; 3) loving and expressing compassion towards all humans
and life on earth without judgment; and 4) creating beauty within the heart, thoughts,
spoken words, within the home, ignoring the violence and non-beauty that is broadcast
by the world. These must be preceded by a removal of fear and guilt, the desire to
control the lives of others. the belief that he is elite, and the belief that one is
responsible for the behavior of others.
Once the initiate has passed through the three rooms of the endowment, he
waits until he is called to the veil (the morning horizon) to move into the fourth or final
room of light, the celestial. Once called, he receives the embrace of the Divine and
enters the heavenly realm, returning to the world of light and understanding and
makes his way to the zenith.
This is the God Ra who is born “again” at sunrise and who makes his way to-
wards the zenith once again. The initiates of the ancient mysteries symbolically passed
through a portal and stood among the Gods of the next world, whether by ritual or
drug. The vernal or spring equinox is the time where death and darkness give way to
the morning light as Ra begins moving above the horizon. This is the journey of the
Goddess Persephone leaving the darkness of hell to embrace her mother Demeter in
the world of light above. This is Adam and Eve leaving mortality and returning to their
world of light. The ancient initiates have left the darkness and entered into a room of
brilliant light, caused by a very large bonfire where they rejoice at their new know-
ledge of the Gods and of their assurance of salvation. This is the ascent of the initiate.
Symbolism of the Names, Signs, and Tokens
As the LDS initiate passes through each of the 4 rooms, he takes upon himself
the different symbols of the crucifixion of the godman Jesus which are meant to point
the way. To Christians the life of Jesus is the example of the path an initiate walks. To
Buddhists the life of Buddha is the path. To the Jews, the Messiah is their salvation. To
the Muslims, the life of Muhammad is the path. For the ancients their exemplar was
the Goddess Isis and Demeter.
Paul said “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” (Gal 6:17). Paul was a
Gnostic Master of the ancient mysteries (Freke, 2001, 28) as well as the new Jesus
Mystery. He is saying he also died as to the “old man” (through a symbolic crucifixion
or death of his character) and was reborn a “new man”.
By passing through the purification, every initiate symbolically dies as to the old
man and is reworked in the spiritual womb of Sophia where his character is built upon
the four principles. As Wilmshurst put it, man was sent into the "tomb of transforma-
tion"; the grave into which the soul descended for the purpose of working out its own
salvation, for transforming and improving itself, and ascending out of it the stronger and
wiser for the experience.” (Wilmshurst, after 1922, 11, italics added). Unlike the ancient
beliefs that the body was a prison for suffering, mortality is actually for the education
of the soul, a place where one demonstrates to himself and others the quality of his
character.
As the initiate makes his way through the four rooms of the LDS endowment, he
receives four names, signs, and tokens. These are the same or similar signets that are
given in Freemasonry after death in order to pass through the veils.
The Ascent Via the Divine Embrace
The ancients understood the concept of experiencing an embrace with the

Divine and how that symbolically related to the three aspects of sexual love making:
foreplay, orgasm and post coital bliss.
Physically, foreplay is the way in which a person begins his or her journey into
the throws of sexual ecstasy. This symbolically refers to his or her spiritual journey of
purification (cleansing) and of inculcating the principles which engender a spiritual
regeneration and transformation of the character, and builds a spiritual “aliveness” not
felt before.
Then, at a time determined by the Divine, the initiate is drawn up from foreplay
into an experience that can only be compared to sexual orgasm or ecstasy based in
divine love. The initiate is spiritually taken to a non-physical plane and experiences a
flood of knowledge coming into his mind. He is enveloped in a strong spiritual sub-
stance of divine love, acceptance, confidence, assurance and peace which engulfs his
entire being. His body tingles and all his spiritual senses come alive. He feels partly in
this world-dimension and partly in another. His mind is very clear and is able to see
aspects of the past, present and future all at the same time, as he watches the scenes
roll before him. The fog of deception is cleared away and the person can readily com-
prehend what is happening to him on this earth and can clearly see what his path
should be. Scenes and images fly through his mind and soul as he understands their
meaning with ease. This is the ascent into the realm of the Divine. A sense of awe,
wonderment and excitement come over the person as the presentation washes
through and around him.
The spiritual embrace experience can last a considerable amount of time or be
over within minutes. In any case, when it starts to end (the climax is over), the person
begins to feel a withdrawal of the spirit and power that accompanied the experience.
The “fever” of the Goddess wanes. He is returned in spirit to the present and the vision
is closed, but his body continues to tingle and he feels that part of him is still elsewhere.
The knowledge that was received remains, having been burned into the soul of the
recipient. The spiritual embrace by the Divine comes to an end.
Spiritual post coital bliss now sets in. It can endure for months or years after-
wards. The initiate is now on a different status with the unseen world and with man-
kind. He begins to guide his life according to the knowledge received.
“At last he sees The One, the conqueror of death, who led humanity upon the
path of Eternity [Osiris]. Through the unveiling of the sublime Thing, the initiate knows
more than other humans; through the initiation, the initiate experiences a transition from
human being to a being more than human. Brought face to face with the redeeming god,
the initiate is saved.” (Max Guilmot, “An Initiatory Drama in Ancient Egypt”, p 3-7).
The Final Revealing of the Gods
“The most sublime part of the epopteia or final revealing, consisted in beholding
the gods themselves invested with a resplendent light; and that this was symbolical of
those transporting visions, which the virtuous soul will constantly enjoy in a future
state; and of which it is able to gain some ravishing glimpses, even while connected with
the cumbrous vestment of the body.” (Taylor, 1891, 107). In other words a virtuous soul
is able to view a “transporting vision” from the Gods while he/she is yet in the body.
Plotinus states he had such a vision 3 times. In a Footnote on p. 107:: “Plotinus:
Letter to Flaccus: It is only now and then that we can enjoy the elevation made possible
for us, above the limits of the body and the world. I myself have realized it but three
times as yet, and Porphyry hitherto not once.” (Taylor, 1891, 107)
In a Footnote on p. 108: “Porphyry afterward declared that … he himself was
only once so elevated to the gnosis or union with God, so as to have glimpses of the eternal
world. This did not occur till he was sixty-eight years of age.” (Taylor, 1891, 108).
I was elevated twice in a “transporting vision”, glimpsed the eternal world and
received knowledge from the divine intelligence of that world when age 46 and 47.
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A Personal Endowment The Descent Journey PDF

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A Personal Endowment

The Descent, Journey & Ascent Motif Throughout Time

The Meaning Behind the

General Aspects of the Ancient Mysteries

The Ancient Egyptian Mysteries

“Certainly in Egypt ritual dances and dramatized performances of living myth

The Eleusinian Lesser Mysteries

The Eleusinian Greater Mysteries

The Ancient Eleusinian Mysteries

Significant Aspects of the Greater Mysteries

Symbolism of the Death and Resurrection of the Godman

Walker stated, “In Demeter’s principal temple, called Eleusis, “Advent,”

Rituals and Purification

Superficially a myth was an entertaining story, but to the initiated it was a

The Embraced Initiate Is Freed From Rules

After an initiate is spiritually touched or “embraced” by the Divine, he moves

…that there was a spiritual understanding deeper than an externally imposed

Female Sexual & Reproductive Symbolism of the Ancient Temples

Anciently, “the entrance to [the Goddess] Inanna’s byre or sheepfold [later,

[Right: The design of the Jerusalem

“Inanna and Ishtar were the

Development of the Hiram Abiff Story

The Descent, Journey & Ascent Motif

Symbolism of the Motif in the Four Veils

Symbolism of the Motif within the LDS Endowment Rooms

Symbolism of the Names, Signs, and Tokens

The Ascent Via the Divine Embrace

The ancients understood the concept of experiencing an embrace with the

The Final Revealing of the Gods

Cummings, William Leon, Bibliography of Anti-Masonry, © 1834, reprinted from Part I,

Gimbutas, Marija, The Living Goddess, © 2001, Published by University of California

Johnstone, Michael, The Freemasons: The Illustrated Book of an Ancient Brotherhood,

MacNulty, W. Kirk, Freemasonry: Symbols, Secrets, Significance, © 2006, Published by

Morgan, William Captain, Freemasonry Exposed and Explained, © 1882 by the

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